Madame Nguyễn Thị Định (; 15 March 1920 – 26 August 1992) was the first female general of the
Vietnam People's Army during the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
and the first female
Vice President of Vietnam. Her role in the war was as
National Liberation Front deputy commander, and was described as "the most important Southern woman revolutionary in the war". Furthermore, she was commander of an all-female force known as the Long-Haired Army, which engaged in espionage and combat against
ARVN and
US Forces.
Biography
Định was born from a peasant family in
Bến Tre Province, and fought with the
Viet Minh
The Việt Minh (, ) is the common and abbreviated name of the League for Independence of Vietnam ( or , ; ), which was a Communist Party of Vietnam, communist-led national independence coalition formed at Pác Bó by Hồ Chí Minh on 19 May 1 ...
forces against the French. She was arrested and incarcerated by the
French colonial authority between 1940–43, and helped lead an
insurrection in Bến Tre in 1945, and again in 1960 (against the government of
Ngô Đình Diệm). In that period, she lost her first husband while incarcerated by French authorities.
She was a founding member of the
National Liberation Front (NLF). In 1965 she was elected chairwoman of the South Vietnam Women's Liberation Association, who were given the name the "long-haired warriors" by
Ho Chi Minh
(born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), colloquially known as Uncle Ho () among other aliases and sobriquets, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and politician who served as the founder and first President of Vietnam, president of the ...
.
A portion of membership in the National Liberation Front continued to be women, and many were drawn to the promise of changes in the role of women in society.
After the Vietnam War and the reunification of Vietnam, Madame Định served on the Central Committee of the
Vietnamese Communist Party and also became the first female
major general to serve in the
Vietnam People's Army. She was also one of the
Deputy Chairmen of the Council of State from 1987 until her death. Together with Madame
Nguyễn Thị Bình, she is one of the two most prominent female Vietnamese communist leaders. She was awarded the
Lenin Peace Prize for 1967. In 1995, she was posthumously awarded the title
Hero of the People's Armed Forces.
Her memoirs were translated and published by Cornell University Press in 1976.
Định was interviewed by
Stanley Karnow for
Vietnam: A Television History documentary.
She contributed the piece "The braided army" to the 1984 anthology ''
Sisterhood Is Global: The International Women's Movement Anthology'', edited by
Robin Morgan.
External links
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nguyen, Thi Dinh
1920 births
1992 deaths
Generals of the People's Army of Vietnam
Vice presidents of Vietnam
Recipients of the Lenin Peace Prize
Members of the 4th Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam
Members of the 5th Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam
Members of the 6th Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam
People from Bến Tre province
Place of death missing
Women in the Vietnam War
Vietnamese people of the Vietnam War
20th-century Vietnamese women politicians
20th-century Vietnamese politicians
Women vice presidents of Vietnam
Women government ministers of Vietnam